Andhra cops fire on land agitators, 8 killed

STRONG PROTEST: Protestors demanding setting up of an autonomous commission for implementing land reforms.

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New Delhi: The Left parties' agitation seeking land for the poor in Andhra Pradesh took a violent turn on Saturday as at least eight activists were killed in police firing on protestors in Khammam district.

Police opened fire on a protest rally led by farmers and Left party workers. The protestors were demanding the setting up of an autonomous commission for implementing land reforms and monitoring the distribution of land to the landless.

Eight people were injured in the incident. The condition of three of them was stated to be critical.

The bandh is also supported by opposition TDP and the BJP. Several incidents of violence have been reported from across the state.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S R Reddy took serious note of the police firing and held a meeting with Director General of Police M A Basit and other top officials to review the situation.

The agitation programme took a violent turn when activists of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), who were on a protest fast and blocking a road, allegedly threw stones at a police vehicle, injuring two policemen.

Describing the police firing as unfortunate, state Home Minister K Jana Reddy urged CPI-M and CPI leaders to appeal to their activists not to indulge in violence and to protest peacefully.

The policemen, several of them in plain clothes, opened fire on protestors including a large number of women sitting under a tent.

“An inquiry into the incident was ordered and Inspector General of Police Purnachander Rao was deputed to go into the circumstances that led to the firing,” a news agency quoted Reddy as saying.

Regional TV channels aired pictures of policemen firing several rounds from automatic weapons on the protestors. Most of the victims were shot on abdomen, chest and head. The bodies were lying in pools of blood while the injured were writhing in pain. Wailing men and women had gathered around them.

The situation remained explosive in the region as CPI-M activists took the bodies to the office of the Khammam district collector and were staging a sit-in outside it.

CPI-M leaders alleged that the police firing was unprovoked and aimed to kill innocent protestors.

The violence and police firing in Khammam district took place during the daylong shutdown called by the Communist Party of India (CPI) and CPI-M to protest the use of force by police on their activists at different places in the state on Thursday.